How Corporate Lunch Increases Employee Productivity

How Corporate Lunch Increases Employee Productivity

Did you know that laying on a healthy corporate lunch is one of the most powerful ways to improve productivity and profits (not to mention staff morale and collaboration)? Affordable, straightforward and fun, it sounds too good to be true, right? Yet all the facts support the idea that when it comes to lunch, what’s good for your team is great for business.

Food fuels the fire

The will to push on through lunchtime to get the job done is admirable, but is it healthy? Is it sustainable? Probably not. Even the most enthusiastic employee will find that as the afternoon wears on, fatigue sets in making it tricky to keep up with tasks. Sure enough, productivity and motivation nosedives. Skipping lunch just saps our afternoon energy reserves and creates disengaged employees. Do it often enough and you and your employees will be looking at a severe case of burnout.

Fortunately, there’s a ridiculously easy solution. Simply stopping, even for half an hour, to enjoy an exciting, healthy corporate lunch gives your team the chance to refuel so they can power through the afternoon. With a sharp mind and lightning fast fingers, you’re back to being productivity ninjas, which from a business perspective is a sweet return on investment.

Breaks improve employee productivity

Any athlete will tell you that rest and recovery are essential elements of any training regime. In the same way, employees who take breaks experience less fatigue and greater productivity in the afternoon thus allowing them to work harder throughout the day. Those who routinely skip lunch breaks risk long-term mental and physical exhaustion, which is no bueno for blitzing the to-do list.

Alarming statistics show that only one in three workers leave their desk for lunch. Some skip food altogether. Both are terrible for productivity in the workplace and mental health as failing to take a break exhausts your cognitive capacity and hampers your creativity.

On the other hand, those people who break for lunch return to work refreshed, which significantly boosts performance and accuracy (and leads to fewer errors). In fact, a study by the World Health Organization suggests that eating lunch can increase brain power by up to 20%—that’s tantamount to rocket fuel! When your employees achieve significantly more after lunch, that’s a win-win for your people, your company, and clients, all for a relatively small investment.

Corporate lunch feeds collaboration

Your employees aren’t robots (even that guy in IT who you’ve had your suspicions about). We’re all social animals who function best when we’re part of a team. But have you noticed how hard it can be to chat with even your closest colleagues without interruption?

Day to day, it’s easy to underestimate the power of the humble lunch break as a chance to socialize, cement relationships, and fuel cross-departmental idea sharing. Eating together is way more intimate than reviewing spreadsheets (unless you have a thing for spreadsheets) and that intimacy spills over into work to improve productivity in the workplace.

Happy, healthy people are productive people

According to a Harvard Business Review article from 2011, happiness levels have a direct impact on employees’ creativity, productivity, and commitment. Happy employees are productive employees.

Corporate culture is a complex business but it all boils down to taking excellent care of your people. After all, your values mean nothing without action. Giving your people access to delicious, nutritious food is a great place to start. Gone are the days of limp lettuce and soggy sandwiches. Now we’re talking brisket cannellini, roast pork loin, vegetable ettoufee, beautiful farmers market salads, grass-fed burgers, or snack packs brimming with delicious goodness.

It’s true that while no company has the right to dictate what its employees eat, you can encourage them to break for lunch every day, increase productivity at work, and enjoy an exciting flavor-packed menu that helps keep them healthy and motivated.

Food spreads the love

Which leads us on to the little matter of employee appreciation. People who feel valued are more satisfied with their jobs and more likely to stay with that company (and recommend it as a great place to work).

Imagine, if you will, having your personal chef onsite every day, prepping and cooking in your kitchen or delivering it to your door and setting up for service. The smells, the buzz, the theatre of it. The fact that you’ve gone out of your way to find a great catering company to delight staff with creative on-trend menus speaks volumes.

As employee perks go, it’s got to be one of the most affordable, easy to organize, but oh so powerful ways to say, ‘thank you’. So maybe it’s time to reconsider the ping pong table and in-chair massages because it turns out that the key to improving employee productivity is through their stomach.

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Zoe Browne / About Author

Word wrangler and lover of good food, Zoe specializes in writing for the travel and hospitality sectors. Her love affair with beautiful, simple ingredients blossomed after hours spent tending her Italian grandfather's vast vegetable garden. She believes in the transformative power of travel and food, preferably at the same time. Favorite travel food moment? Blinking in the morning sunlight on a rooftop in Rome, eating the most fragrant ripe peach and sipping a seriously muscular espresso as the city stirred below.